Growth mindset focusing on self-improvement for Athletes, Parents and Coaches

Say Anything (Or Not)

My kids are at the age where they make concerted efforts on the regular to get on each others nerves.

One super cool way they are putting this in action right now is by copying each other.

It’s precious.

They’ll be playing great together and then BAM! one of them thinks “hey, things are going really well, we should make mom earn her keep around here.”

Then it begins:

Kid 1: “Stop touching me”

Kid 2: (in a nasally high pitched voice) “stop touching me”

Kid 1: “Mom, he’s copying me”

Kid 2: (nasally, high-pitched) “mom, he’s copying me”

Kid 1: “staaaaaaaahhhhhp!!”

Kid 2: (nasally, high-pitched) “staaaaaaaahhhhhhp!”

If you don’t have kids, you have no idea. If you do have kids you know that your next move is crucial because if you aren’t careful, you are likely to say to them both in a nasally, high-pitched voice:

“STAAAAAAAAHHHHPPP!!”

But today as the mimicking was happening, the wheels in my brain were turning. I thought fast and said the first thing that popped into my head.

“Look, if you don’t say anything, no one will copy you.” I meant it. Like, if you stop, there will be silence and we will all be happier.

But as soon as it escaped my mouth, I regretted it.

If you don’t say anything, no one will copy you.

Dang.

While it is true, I live by the mantra that if you have a message, a story, something so important you want to shout it from the rooftops, then you should say it…

LOUDLY

OFTEN

MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO COPY YOU!

(does no one remember that moment in My Best Friend’s Wedding when Julia Roberts’ character lets the moment “pass her by” on that boat in the Chicago River while not telling Dermot Mulroney that she loves him, solidifying his decision to marry his current fiancé Cameron Diaz, which, hello is way more fun than Julia Roberts’ character?)

But, here I was telling my kid to stop talking because I didn’t want anyone else to copy what he was saying. Am I reading too much into it?

Prolly.

But the quick retort made me think.

I’m not saying the world needs more copycats, duplicates or mimicry, but if you have lived through something hard, really stinkin’ hard and you are here to tell others about it and share your story?

DO IT.

One of the defining moments of my post-partum depression was when a woman I hadn’t spoken to in years picked up the phone and said to me “me too.”

She said all the things and then I copied her. I got help and I made it. I not only made it, I thrived and I told my story so that others could copy me too.

AND…no one even needed that nasally, high-pitched voice. Bonus.

Do I like that my kids mimic each other and drive the whole house batty?